GRAND JUNCTION, Colo. — One day, Kylie Kravig will look back at the numbers, like dishing out her 500th career assist on Saturday, a dribble-drive and a quick pass to a cutting Brooklyn Palmer for a layup in the third quarter.
For now...
"I think the winning is more exciting than anything else, and I guess it means more if you win," the Colorado Mesa point guard said after the Mavericks avenged their earlier 2-point loss to Regis with a convincing 75-60 victory at Brownson Arena. "If you lose, it doesn't really matter."
The RMAC leader in assists with 6.6 per game, and assist-to-turnover ratio at 2.0, Kravig finished with seven assists, giving her 502 in her career. She's CMU's all-time career leader in the category, and is also first in single-season assists with 180 last season. Her 142 dimes in her sophomore season rank No. 6 in a single season.
Kravig and the Mavericks (17-4, 12-2 RMAC) are enjoying winning a lot right now, with their 10th straight, keeping them two games ahead of Western Colorado and Black Hills State in the conference.
"We've got a two-game lead and I'd like to keep that," Wagner said. "But just locking in. Every game gets bigger and it doesn't really matter who the opponent is, but every game is going to get bigger for us and it's getting close to March. It gets crazy and that's where the teams that are really locked in, really prepared, play great defense, those team that win a lot and advance."
A 10-0 scoring run to close the first quarter put the Mavericks up 23-12, which was capped by a sweet spin move by Kravig in the lane to shake her defender, Athena Saragoza, for a layup just before the horn.
Kravig finished with 16 points and five rebounds to go with her seven assists. By the end of the first quarter, Kravig had eight points and three assists, taking a couple of kick-out passes from Olivia Reed Thyne for open 3-pointers.
"Liv attracts a lot of attention so my girl was helping and she did a great job of reading and kicking it out," Kravig said. "They're switching ball screens so one of us had a mismatch, whether it was the post or the guard."
Reed Thyne had her 13th double-double of the season with 22 points and 11 rebounds, and Palmer also had a double-double, her third, with 14 points and 10 boards. Riley Hayes hit nine of 10 free throws for much of her 15 points, but she buried a pair of crucial 3-pointers in the fourth quarter.
Defensively, CMU held Regis to 34.9 percent shooting from the field, and the Rangers missed their first 14 3-point attempts, finishing 5 of 25.
Erin Fry, who is second to Kravig in assists and assist-to-turnover ratio, had 23 points, but only two assists and five turnovers. Mykaela Moore drew much of the defensive assignment against Fry, and made her work for her points. Saragoza had 19 points for the Rangers (9-12, 7-7).
"We just wanted to make her take tough shots, her and Saragoza are really talented," Wagner said. "They can score anywhere on the floor and that was the goal going in, just make them take tough shots and we can kind of live with those. You know they're going to get their shots no matter what in any game so I thought they did a great job on her."
The Mavericks ran efficient offense, shooting 44.8 percent, and again were clutch at the free throw line, making 15 of 16. They built a 22-point lead in the first three minutes of the fourth quarter before the Rangers hit a couple of 3s to somewhat close the gap.
This is CMU's longest winning streak since a 14-game run in the 2019-20 season, but the Mavericks aren't keeping track. They're back on the road next week, playing at New Mexico Highlands and Fort Lewis.
"No one talks about that, no one does," Wagner said of the streak. "It's just the next game, and they're locked in. We've got a mature team, so they really know what they're doing. The leadership here (with Kravig and Palmer), Olivia, Riley, some of those older girls, they do a phenomenal job, they're locking in, they're saying what I would say, I really appreciate that. I like where we're at mentally with our team because we just have great leadership, and they know what it's going to take to keep advancing."
